78 replies to this topic

[Baby Brian]

Same here. Grew up in the 70's and 80's. Actually joined the military in part to help me get over wearing diapers (biggest purge ever?) since I was the only one in existence that liked to wear diapers. It wasn't till after I got out 99 out that I discovered computers, the internet, & most important of all- DPF. Back then even depends were ok, but yes the scent of opening a box of premium Attends were the best. It's a shame things don't ever hold up to how we remember them.

(thanks Tommy for bringing us all together and letting us know were not alone after all. I hope you're still hanging in there)

[Cloth Diaper Baby]

My first internet experiences with others of the diapered set were through WetSet and DPF. It was a huge relief to find that i am not the only "bigger baby who is still in diapers". I had been back in diapers for at least a dozen years before finding the internet diaper sites in the late 90's.

[Forced2wet]

I was born in 1964 (yes, I know that makes me an old fart) I first started to feel the urge to wear nappies and plastic pants again in the late 70's. I would use a white towel and cover it with either a plastic bag with leg holes cut out or a pair of my big sisters frilly big knickers.

It actually never bothered me that I might be the only one into it as it just felt so right for me to do it.

I can remember looking at the ad's in the NOTW newspaper for incontinence pants and pads and thinking it would be great to be able to send off for some of them.

When I eventually 'found' the internet, it was the realisation that there were 'real' disposable and terry nappies as well as adult size plastic pants that blew my mind rather than I was the only one.

[Honeywell6180]

My situation was rather tragic. I wasn't diagnosed with Autism until 2001. But during my childhood, I had frequent encounters with incontinence, often there were fecal accidents involved, even beyond 4th grade. Although it was known by some people, it was never truly addressed with the protective products available back then. Pampers, in the toddler size, would have most likely fit until I was around 12 or so, and then I could have probably kept using them as a pad in regular underwear after. Then there were many varieties of cloth diapers, prefolds and even the flat-fold gauze diaper that could fit a teen or adult, that you could buy at any retail store including K-Mart.

This, of course, was back in the 1970s when people with disabilities were severely looked down on, and everybody had to be "normal". It just wasn't cool to have any handicap. I'm sure that had I really spoke up and told a doctor about my problem, I would have been sent to a mental institution instead of being prescribed the products and help I truly needed. A lot of this is why I took up smoking. It was to deal with the stress, and make me appear "bigger" and more like an "adult". I hate to make this sound like something from the Ad Council, but if you have a kid who experiences any issue like I described, then talk to your doctor. There IS help available, and many products on the market that can allow kids live a normal life, and have MANY achievements without a medical problem being in the way!

[BitterGrey]

Great to see that this thread got resurrected. It think we should try to capture the history of our community - especially the formative years.

Toward this goal I've been gathering what I can, but am still missing a lot. The first of maybe four articles is finally up: It covers the 1975-1980 period of our community's development, focusing on Linda Latex, Florence, and Cathy Slavik. With Stonewall and other revolutionary events driven by GLBTs, I was a aware that we owed a great debt to people who weren't necessarily ABDLs in general. Putting this article together showed me just how much of a role three specific people (who don't seem to have been ABDLs) played in building our community.

Not sure which order the others will come together in. I've got some notes for a second, on DPF. However, I'd like to cover DPF's precursors in the gay community in the same article but don't have much information on them.

Another article will cover the old personal ads in more detail. I've got lot of scans of ads and letters from the 80's, but only a few from the 70's. Scans of ads from the 50's or 60's would be great - if they existed. These might answer some questions, such as when the phrase "adult baby" come into use.

Of course, we should also have an article on the BBSs, Compuserve, etc.

Any help, of course, would be appreciated.

Also, feel free to let me know if you'd like the articles converted over to an explicitly cited format, like my research papers. They are less readable, but more checkable.

[square_duck]

To answer one question, as far as I know, The term "adult baby" was originally coined by Tommy in DPF. Now thats according to history that I read, I think on the DPF site way back in 2000 when I first popped on-line looking for info. I don't think there was a term to describe this whole "thing' before then. As far as I know tommy essentially invented the whole AB/DL community via DPF! but thats just me, and what do I know?
I am sure that terms such as "infantalism' etc. existed long before then, and more then likely described a type of 'disorder' that was very rare and very misunderstood. I have this image in my mind that Napoleon was an infantalist, but I don't know why.....but if thats the case, that give you a huge chunk of time to cover. If you keep digging I am sure you will find things that take the dates much further back in history.

I don't know if this helps *shrug* but it might give a different scope to the whole history of the community such as we are today.

[poopy_dipes]

I think Duck is right. I don't remember seeing "adult baby" before the 1980s when DPF was getting underway. Prior to that it was always "infantilism".

And B Grey, I was very actively going to adult bookstores searching for anything related to ABDL in the late 1970s onward. I corresponded with Florence, Linda and "Cathy" and would love to help you. Mail me at wetdiapers@btkva.com (in fact, any of you are welcome to mail me, I especially like hearing from other "pre internet" ABDLs and talking about those days).

I used to have all of the magazines from back then. At the time my kids were born I gave them to a friend (along with all the other porn magazines I had) and said "keep these for me for a while". A few years ago, he died and I have no idea what became of them. But I did just find the address of his former girlfriend and wrote to ask her if she still has this stuff. Wish me luck.

[poopy_dipes]

Since making that last post, I've been thinking about this and now remember that the first use of "adult baby" may actually have been from "Cathy" Slavik who published a magazine called "Tales From The Crib" with the subtitle "Bizarre stories for the Adult Baby." Seems like those were out before the beginning of DPF by a year or two.

Tommy was the first person to try to assemble a big list of all of us and provide a means of people contacting each other and having "get togethers." He used to want people in various parts of the country to volunteer to be "DPF Ambassadors" and contact all the nearby folks and organize dinners, outings, trips, and the like.

[diaperloverj2]

Before getting online I was convinced I was the only adult in the world who loves to wear and use diapers. I also had no idea there was such a thing as adult disposable diapers. When I first got online it was to compuserve and bulletin boards. And the usenet news groups. I collected thousands of pictures from alt.fetish.diapers.pictures I think it was called. Then the internet came along with the yahoo diaper groups. I suddenly had diaper lover friends to talk to. I found out about laxative suppositories, phospho-soda, and vegitable oil enemas. Amazon brings me plastic pants. And I have this forum. Life is good.

[poopy_dipes]

Prior to the mid-1980s there WEREN'T adult disposable diapers in the stores. I think "Depends" were the first ones and they were introduced around 1985.

Before that you could get them if you went to a medical supply store but that was a rather embarrassing thing to do because people who worked in these places asked you all sorts of questions. Mostly because they wanted to help you get what you needed, and have your insurance pay for it.

Today I'd just go in, tell them "they're for me and here's my insurance info" but back then when I was about 20, I was too shy to do this. I tried saying "oh they're for my brother" and the sales guy kept asking "What's his name? Why does he need them? Was he injured? Why don't you let your insurance pay for these?" TOO embarrassing!

It's a much better world for ABDLs today than it was back then. (But we all still loved it and did it anyway. LOL.)

Early on, on the web, I also used to go to the alt.sex.fetish.diapers.pictures newsgroup and there were lots of them there. Before long the newsgroups were all taken over by spam. Then my ISP dropped them altogether several years ago.

[rusty pins]

I remember Attends in the very late 1970's or at least by 1980. Prior to that, you might see some disposable bed pads and maybe in older drug stores you might find some old boxes of waterproof adult pants. Remember for you younger people, even disposable baby diapers wern't really popular or available until the later 1960's. Once adult disposable diapers started showing up in drug stores and places like K-mart in the early 1980's (Attends and Depends), is it any wonder that the adult AB and DL started really taking off and growing with the ease of product availability and TV commercials? Then you have the internet!

[BitterGrey]

Since making that last post, I've been thinking about this and now remember that the first use of "adult baby" may actually have been from "Cathy" Slavik who published a magazine called "Tales From The Crib" with the subtitle "Bizarre stories for the Adult Baby." Seems like those were out before the beginning of DPF by a year or two.

Tales from the Crib #1 was published in 1978, which would make it pre-DPF. However, "The Play Pen" had the phrase on the cover since #1. Play Pen #1 and #2 aren't dated, but the Jan 1976 issue of "The Crib Sheet" mentions that Play Pen #3 hadn't been printed. This pushes the date up to maybe 1975.

Since Florence and Cathy had been corresponding before "The Play Pen" #1, Cathy might have coined the phrase. I don't know.

Currently I'm trying to gather copies of the early published ads and letters. (Unpublished letters are of interest to, but they would be more private and less verifiable.) These might show a still earlier origin.

[Repaid1]

On the subject of Adult diapers I do remember being 14 or so and went to the local Drug Store. I believe it was a Rexall drug store owned by a local couple. There were Adult diapers on a table for discount as the package was opened. I remember I had just become to start my Teen diaper experiences. I boldly picked them up and took them to the front counter and paid for them with my allowance money from mowing the lawn and other chores.

Without going into to much more they were a hourglass wingfold shape with one tape on each side. Plastic backed and a very and I mean Very thin layer of cellulose padding, which could barely hold one very slow wetting, which if it did would push out if you sat down. This would have been around 77-78 time frame. No wetness indicators, just plain white. They looked like a bigger Pampers.

I also remember within a year of finding a green diaper (not depend) I want to say it was the first At-Ease brand but not sure of the name. It was a bit better in thickness but still had one tape on each side. A few years after that came my first BOX of Attends! around 1980 on them I believe.

I think the lady on the first ones (The white ones) mentioned that they were really old stock and they were cleaning out the back room and found them so they had to be at least a year older than when I bought them. I think I paid 50 cents for them I believe it was a pack of ten with one missing if memory serves me right.

[wetatnight]

the surcare adult diapers from the early 1980's were wing fold shaped like the 1970's pampers, but they were alot thinner and didn't hold much wettness.
I bought them occasionally from a Good Neighbor pharmacy

[waynecook52]

The first adult dissposable diaper came out in the early 50's.Johnson and johnson made the first ones.They where a flat one tape per side fits all.Then Kendell started making them to.Those are the worst diapers ever made.And as bad as they where you can still buy them today.

[Spokane Girl]

I used to think I was the only one who liked them so I kept it a secret. I never thought about buying them when I grow up just so I can wear them. I would look at babies and imagine them peeing and pooping in diapers and how lucky they were and I wished I could be a baby again so I can wear. I knew then adult diapers existed but they weren't like baby diapers.

Then one day in 6th grade it all changed. I decided to look up diapers and instead I found Ashley's Diaper Adventures and other posts by people saying how they like wearing diapers and I even saw some written by parents saying their kids wear them for bed wetting but one day they woke up and didn't bother taking the diaper off so he wore it all day and they said nothing. Then I saw a post by someone saying their teenage daughter wears them. I was no longer alone and I felt happy with myself. Then my mother ruined it for me saying it wasn't real and it was all fake. So for years I just thought it was all fake when I see it all online and then my shrink told me there are people out there that do wear them for fun and I felt happy all over again.

[square_duck]

I'm not fake and I like to wear diapers too!

So there!

[CDLover]

In the 60's I used to look at the Sear's catalog and wish I could by the adult cloth diapers they sold. I was an early teen then and never did get up the courage to do so though.

CDL

[square_duck]

I remember I had that catalog too! I did order some of the diapers from it back in the 80's, you had to call the number and do it with someone on the phone...which was nerve racking as hell! They weren't anything special though. Just 2 ply birdseye with a "soaker" that was rayon (non absorbent) or some stupid thing and a partial water proof cover...BAH> Those are still available on Ebay and such. I ended up cutting off the water proof section and the 'soaker' and just using the diaper with some kind of booster.
I also ordered a medium, and they sent me larges which I guess worked out OK, because they could be folded to fit...Which is something I didn't want, but oh well. They were 'diapers' and I could use them and feel better about it, I guess. Didn't get into disposables until later, around 1987 or so..
I was just disappointed really in that Sears usually has pretty good stuff, but they sold crappy diapers, which was sad, since their kids diapers were a heck of a lot better. UGH! Kids always get all the good stuff